HOUSTON LAKE MINING INC.

(HLM-TSX.V)

PRESS RELEASE

Houston Lake Reports Agnico-Eagle Drilling Results

February 4, 2003: Sudbury, Ontario - Houston Lake Mining Inc. (TSX.V:HLM, "Houston Lake") is pleased to announce results of the recently completed drilling program on the 1632 hectare (4030 acre) Tib Lake property which is located in the Thunder Bay Mining District of NW Ontario. The ten hole 1470m. (4822 ft.) drilling program completes Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited’s (TSE:AGE,AEM-NYSE, "Agnico-Eagle") first year commitments of the four year option agreement.

The Tib Lake property is located in the Lac Des Iles area just 15 km. (9 miles) from the Lac Des Iles mine of North American Palladium Ltd. At December 31, 2001, the total proven and probable reserves, and measured and indicated resources at the Lac Des Iles mine had increased to 159 million tonnes averaging 1.55 grams of palladium per tonne containing 8.0 million ounces of palladium. The Tib Lake gabbro, with a surface exposure of some 25 square km. (10 square miles), is the second largest intrusion of the Lac Des Iles suite of rocks and, as such, is a prime target for palladium-platinum-gold (PGE) exploration.

The $500,000 first year commitment of Agnico-Eagle involved two phases of exploration. Phase 1 of the current program was completed on October 7, 2002 and involved geological mapping, prospecting, lithogeochemical sampling, humus sampling, mechanical trenching and stripping, and channel sampling. Preliminary evaluation indicated that the more mafic to ultramafic rock units such as peridotite are important hosts to the PGE mineralization.

The 10 hole, 1500 metre (4920 foot) Phase 2 diamond drilling program targeted the two main PGE occurrences on the property: the Kuhner Zone and the West Dog Occurrence. Eight drill holes probed strike extensions of the Kuhner Zone where previous drilling intersected 18.47 metres (60.6 feet) of core length grading 1.68 g/t PGE’s at an average depth of 35 metres (100 feet) and 22 metres (72.2 feet) of core length grading 1.456 g/t PGE’s at an average depth of 65 metres (213.2 feet) under the Kuhner Occurrence. Three drill holes TL-02-21 through TL-02-23 formed a north-south fence that tested the possible westward extension of the Kuhner mineralization, TL-02-24 drilled under the Kuhner Occurrence in an east-west direction, TL-02-25 tested a possible southward extension of the Kuhner Showing, TL-02-26 and TL-02-27 formed a north-south fence to probe for the eastward extension of the Kuhner mineralization while TL-02-28 examined a magnetic high 275 m northeast of the Kuhner Zone. TL-02-29 and TL-02-30 evaluated the West Dog Occurrence where grab samples had returned values up to 1.6 g/t PGE’s. D. B. McKay, P. Geo. served as the Qualified Person on the drilling program. The following table illustrates the best intersections from each of the ten drill holes (1000 ppb = 1 g/t):

Agnico-Eagle has the right to earn a 50 percent interest by making cash payments of $650,000 and expending $3.6 million over four years subject to an underlying 2.5 percent NSR. Agnico Eagle has made cash payments of $100,000 and has completed the $500,000 exploration program as required in the first year of the Tib Lake option agreement. Agnico Eagle is currently evaluating the data from the drilling program to decide its next step.

Houston Lake is actively exploring for Gold, Rare Metals, and Platinum Group Metals with a strategic focus on northwestern Ontario. Houston Lake Mining Inc. has a total of 15,803,195 common shares issued and outstanding. The common shares of Houston Lake Mining Inc. trade through the facilities of the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol HLM. For further information on all of the Company's projects, we invite you to visit us at www.houstonlakemining.com.

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